Embroidery and needlepoint fabric has commonly been woven in a simple orthogonal or rectangular pattern. It has been found that such a pattern severely restricts the type of designs that can be made with the rectangular pattern substrate. There are prior art patents that do disclose certain types of triaxial patterns. For example, the Preisig U.S. Pat. No. 264,194 suggests a triangular fringe or border for other fabrics, but does not disclose how its intersections are woven. The Stuart U.S. Pat. No. 1,368,215 discloses a fabric having triangular and trapezoidal pores, but having no three-layer intersections as is important with regard to the present invention. Also, there are a number of triaxial textile and machine patents which have issued to N. F. Doweave, Inc., such as U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,155; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,799,209, 3,874,433; 3,965,939; 4,015,637; 4,066,104.
The Dow patents disclose fabrics in which the yarns are interlocked at intersections to prevent slippage and maximize tear resistance. See for example FIG. 1 of reissue U.S. Pat. No. 28,155. In that patent no intersection is composed of more than two layers. On the other hand, in accordance with the present invention, the fabric has no such space-consuming interlock arrangement but instead provides the preferred three-layer intersection so as to maximize the porosity of the fabric. This porosity is important from the standpoint of needlepoint work on the fabric especially when using quite fluffy yarns for needlepointing.